Lydia didn't know what a hussy was, but she didn't want to stir an inch from her father's side because of her fear of drunken men. She was in a quiver of excitement; torn with pity and doubt when she thought of Charlie Jackson; speechless with apprehension when she thought of the possibility of Levine's being defeated.
It was close on ten o'clock when the sound of a drum was heard from the direction of the Methodist Church. The crowd started toward the sound, then paused as Binny Bates, the barber, in a stove-pipe hat, mounted on a much excited horse, rode up the street. Binny was a Levine man and the crowd broke into cheers and cat-calls.
After Binny came the band, playing for dear life "Hail the Conquering Hero" and after the band, two and two a great line of citizens with kerosene torches. After the torches came the transparencies: "Levine Wins!" "The Reservation is Ours." "Back to the land, boys!" "We've dropped the white men's burden."
And following the transparencies came a surprise for crowd and paraders alike. Close on the heels of the last white man strode Charlie Jackson, with a sign, "The land is ours! You have robbed us!" and after Charlie, perhaps a hundred Indians, tramping silently two by two, to the faint strain of the band ahead,
"Columbia, the gem of the ocean
The home of the brave and the free—"
For a moment, the crowd was surprised into silence. Then a handful of mud caught Charlie's sign and a group of college students, with a shout of "Break up the line! Break up the line," broke into the ranks of the Indians and in a moment a free for all fight was on.
Amos rushed Lydia down a side street and upon a street car. "Well!
Well! Well!" he kept chuckling. "John ate 'em alive! Well! Well!"
Then in the light of the car he looked at Lydia. "For heaven's sake!
What are you crying for, child?"
"I don't know," faltered Lydia. "I'm—glad for Mr. Levine—but poor
Charlie Jackson! You don't suppose they'll hurt him?"
"Oh, pshaw," replied Amos. "Nothing but an election night fight! The young Indian went into the parade just to start one."
"How soon will the Indians have to get off the reservation?" asked
Lydia.